HART to present musical

The Haywood Arts Regional Theater will stage the musical “The Light in the Piazza” Oct. 5 through Oct. 21 at the Performing Arts Center in Waynesville.

The musical tells the story of a woman from Winston-Salem whose husband, a tobacco executive, sends her off on holiday with their daughter. Margaret Johnson takes her daughter Clara to Florence, a city Margaret once visited with her husband in happier times. Clara is learning impaired, having suffered a head injury as a child. Now 26, her mother has sheltered her from harm and reconciled her to a life without romance. But Florence has other ideas. The city is alive with love and Clara is not immune.

The show is based on a 1960 novel by Elizabeth Spencer, a native of Mississippi who met her husband in Italy. She would go on to teach in Canada and finally at UNC-Chapel Hill where she still lives. A 1962 film version of the story stared Olivia de Havilland as Margaret, Yvette Mimieux as Clara and George Hamilton as Fabrizio, the young man she meets. The musical was created by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas who is best known for his play “Prelude to a Kiss.”